We often regard the most beautiful and intelligent people as born under a lucky star. However it is solemnly the case, as the Venuses of this world are rarely lucky and their lives are usually clouded with misfortune. Despite having the beauty, grace and intelligence that most would die for, they often suffer tragic lives.
This is the case of Hollywood star Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, known as Hedy Lamarr. Hereby are the things you never knew about this gorgeous legend:
- She was married to a wealthy Austrian ammunition manufacturer.
- After her 1993 movie, Ecstasy she fled from her husband, and hid in Paris.
- Louis B. Mayer, gave her, her first Hollywood break.
- In 1960, she got her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- Lamarr played the lead in the highest-grossing film of 1950 Samson and Delilah which won two Academy Awards, for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.
- Lamarr opened her own production company with Jack Chertok but her movies The Strange Woman & Dishonored Lady went over budget and made minor profits.
- Lamarr was a self-taught, inventor who has been behind many inventions such improved traffic stoplight , a tablet that would dissolve in water to create a carbonated beverage, a radio guidance system , Bluetooth technology similar to methods used in legacy versions of Wi-Fi
- She dated aviation tycoon Howard Hughes, who supported her inventive to the extent of putting his team of scientists and engineers at her disposal, in order to execute anything she asked for.
- She relentlessly wanted to join and offer her services to the National Inventors Council. She succeeded in her quest, and in 1997, she was awarded the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award and the Bulbie Gnass Spirit of Achievement Bronze Award. She was featured on the Science Channel, the Discovery Channel and was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
- Lamarr married and divorced six times and had three children of which one she claimed was adopted during her marriage to Gene Markey. It later turned out that she had lied, her son James Lamarr Markey/Loder was the out-of-wedlock son with actor John Loder whom she later married. Her lies tarnished her relationship with son, James Lamarr Loder, to the point that he moved in with another family. They remained in conflict for over 50 years and she ended up leaving him out of her will.
- Lamarr was arrested twice for shoplifting, in 1991, it was attributed to depression as she failed to return to the screen.
- In the last decades of her life, the telephone became Lamarr’s only means of communication with the outside world, even with her children and close friends. She often talked up to six or seven hours a day on the phone, but she spent hardly any time with anyone in person in her final years. A documentary, Calling Hedy Lamarr, was released in 2004 and featured her children, Anthony Loder and Denise Loder-DeLuca.
- In her final years Lamarr turned to seclusion and stepped away from her children and friends. She opted for telecommunication rather than face to face encounters. According to a documentary, Calling Hedy Lamarr, which featured her children, Anthony Loder and Denise Loder-DeLuca, she reportedly used to talk six to seven hours a day on the phone.
Some stars are born to shine and when their light goes dim, they just can’t survive. Lamarr couldn’t cope with being seen as anything other than a ravishing beauty with a genius flair. Her wild spirit and arrogance were too big for Hollywood who failed to give her the recognition she deserved.
The Interviewer Mag 